Amidst The Rising Shadows (Book 3) (3 page)

Verona, Braden, and Sarik immediate came to her side, only to be closely followed by Gavril.
 

Iranus raised an eyebrow at Gavril and smiled sadly, “My Lady, I would join you myself to help get Aaron back, but you don’t know the destruction that would be waiting for you on the other side. When a portal is opened it can be traversed both ways. Hordes of nightmarish creatures could come pouring through and kill everyone in Hathenwood in a matter of minutes. Aaron knew the risk and was even given a way to come back if he could,” Iranus said and nodded toward Roselyn.

Sarah turned toward Roselyn, who nodded slowly to her, and Sarah dreaded what she was about to hear.

“It’s true, Sarah, Aaron had a Keystone Accelerator in his possession that would have been able to open a way back to Safanar,” Roselyn said.

“So you see, if Aaron could have come back, he would have,” Iranus said.

Sarah’s eyes drew downward as her mind raced for a way to help Aaron. She looked at Colind, “Is it possible to create another barrier?”

Colind pursed his lips in thought and then slowly shook his head, “The only living person with the knowledge on creating the barrier is on the other side of the portal.”

Verona frowned, “You mean Aaron? How could that be?”

“He would have had to understand how it worked, to be successful in removing the barrier and going through the portal,” Colind said.

“I’m still not clear on why he went through the portal to Hytharia.” Verona said.

Sarah looked up at Verona, “It’s because he couldn’t shutdown the Nanites. The travel crystals slowed them down, but nothing could break the cycle.”

“She’s right,” Roselyn said, “The Nanites had a core set of instructions that they based all of their actions on. Their prime directive was to return to Hytharia through the portal. Aaron’s ancestor, Daverim, created the barrier, and it was linked to the living members of the Alenzar’seth.”

Verona turned toward Colind. “But you were head of the Safanarion Order, how can you not know how the barrier was made? Sarik and I can create barriers, perhaps there is something that we could do.”

Colind smiled sadly, and his shoulders slumped as if a great weight were dragging him down. For a moment, Sarah could see something about the old man that she didn’t expect: defeat.
 

“A different kind of barrier, I’m afraid,” Colind said, “What you were able to do was powered through your own connections and is not something that can be maintained indefinitely. The Alenzar’seth kept that knowledge close to their chests. Reymius and I were as brothers, but there are some things that must stay within families. What Daverim did was extremely dangerous. He tethered the barrier not only to the living members of the House Alenzar’seth but to the very core of Safanar. Over time, the energy drain eroded the very fabric of our world. Shandara became a wasteland. Ask yourself, even with the destruction visited upon Shandara by the High King and the Elitesmen Order, should not the land have recovered by now? The presence of the Ryakul would not have stunted the growth of the plant life nearest the barrier. Even the weather over Shandara was out of sync with the rest of the world. So you see, the barrier that protected our world from the Hythariam horde was also sickening the land around it. People were unaware because the Ryakul presence kept everyone out. That is until Aaron and all of you journeyed to Shandara,” Colind said with his gaze settling upon the small group with Sarah.

“Aaron wouldn’t want us to abandon him,” Sarah said.

“On the contrary, Sarah, that is exactly what he would have us do,” Colind said.

Sarah closed her eyes, feeling a pang in her heart at the truth in Colind’s words. Aaron wanted to protect them all, but she would protect him, even from himself if she had to.

“Then I will apologize to him when next I see him, for abandoning Aaron is something I will never do,” Sarah said.

“And neither will we,” Verona said, with Braden and Sarik nodding.

Iranus quietly cleared his throat and asked for their attention, “I don’t want to give false hope where there very well could be none, but there might, and I stress, might be a way.”

Colind frowned, “What do you mean?”

“The fact of the matter is that we don’t have the resources to build a large Keystone Accelerator to open a portal back to Hytharia and keep it running for any length of time to launch a rescue mission. I would like to see Aaron rescued, and if it were within my power to grant this to you I would. What I was saying before about there might be a way is that in the years after the barrier was first put up, we were preparing for an invasion. We fortified Shandara to specifically be able to deal with the threat from my people. We knew the barrier gave us the breathing room we needed to prepare, but were not sure how long it would last. Together with the Shandarians we created weapons and fortified safe havens for people to gather. Daverim insisted, and I agreed, that the weapons caches hidden throughout Shandara could not be detected by any Hythariam technology. This was to prevent the enemy from using our own weapons against us. The other thing we did was prepare a chamber to open a portal back to Hytharia.”

Gasps echoed through the room, and Sarah knew that this was not common knowledge, even among the Hythariam.

“We knew there were still good people left on Hytharia that should not be doomed to suffer the planet’s fate. We prepared a chamber that held certain safeguards that could suppress the threat of invasion,” Iranus said.

“What safeguards did you put in place?” Sarah asked.

“Ultimately, the chamber would be destroyed, along with anyone inside. However, we wanted to open up communications with the Hythariam still on the other side. Daverim believed, as did I, that a people shouldn’t have to suffer such a terrible fate because its leadership had morphed into something malicious and cruel. The Keystone Accelerator we used was able to hold the portal open for an hour before we ran out of power. At first, we launched some scouting missions, and then we started bringing more people through. They were sworn to secrecy, but we began to meet resistance on Hytharia. They had developed a way to detect when a portal was opened. We kept trying for a time after that, but something changed on the other side. The people were different and started to resist us. The groups of Hythariam being brought back started to contain infiltrators in disguise. We started sectioning the newly arrived Hythariam until we learned whether they were serving General Halcylon. There were a number of incidents, and many Hythariam and Shandarians paid the price with their lives. More of the Hythariam on the other side began to change. They began to view us as the enemy. After we lost several scouting teams, we stopped using the chamber. The risk was too great. Years went by, and we began to discuss the idea of going back to Hytharia, but the attack from the High King and the fall of Shandara changed all that. We believed the chamber was destroyed, but we were never able to confirm. The Ryakuls and...well you’ve seen Shandara, so ‘might be a way’ is the best that I can offer.”

“It’s more than what we had before,” Sarah said.

“We are also in need of your aid,” Iranus said. “Only those with abilities like your own can help us find the stockpiles of weapons hidden at Shandara. Aaron was going to help us when he returned. Will you help us in his stead? It could very well mean, not just our, but everyone’s, survival.”

Sarah took a breath, her mind continuing to race as she weighed what her actions would cost. War was coming, and her people were being pulled into it. There were good people in Khamearra, just as there had been on Hytharia, and she felt herself being caught in the middle. So much bloodshed with the sultry promise of more for those craving power. She began to wonder if any of them would survive or if they would all eventually succumb to the fires of war.
 

Sarah glanced at the large screens on the far side of the room that showed a depiction of the night sky. A blinking dot followed by a red pathway across a field of stars. She could almost feel the fear from the others in the room crawl along her skin. Fear of her father and his Elitesmen, but also something deeper. At times it was difficult to determine the age of the Hythariam in the room, but for some of them the haunted looks of helpless resignation to a dark fate was something she had seen before in Khamearra. The group known as the Resistance had the same desperation about them, that clung to a fleeting hope, that if they could survive another day then perhaps things would change for them. What she was about to do was more than loving Aaron and standing at his side. She was picking a side, but in her heart she knew she had a responsibility to those left in Khamearra, and it was something she would not forget.

“I’ll help you,” Sarah answered.
 

She wouldn’t abandon Aaron, and some chance was better than no chance at all, which is what she faced now.

Iranus nodded and thanked her. He seemed genuinely relieved to have her help. She was invited to sit, and the meeting continued on. It had been two weeks since Aaron had cleansed the Nanites from her system. She had remained asleep for most of that time, which was a blessing because when she did wake up it felt as if the Drake was still controlling her thoughts. Verona had been there each time she awoke and reassured her that she was safe. Although she hadn’t known it at the time, she did remember seeing Roselyn there as well. Residual effects of the Nanites’ failed assimilation attempt is what she had been told was happening to her. The Nanites had begun training her mind to their twisted purpose, but now her mind was free of them. Their influence would fade with the passage of time or so she hoped.

The meeting finished, and they would be leaving for Shandara soon. With the death of the Drake, the Ryakuls had scattered, no longer claiming Shandara as their own. A camp had been setup inside the city, and they would be heading there to begin searching for the weapons caches and the chamber of which Iranus spoke.

Colind watched Sarah as she and the others left the hall. He hadn’t been to Shandara since Aaron had freed him from his prison there. His thoughts were being consumed with Mactar and the death of his son. It was a cold world indeed when a father must visit justice upon his only son. He blamed Mactar for seducing his son with dreams of power, making him a pawn to his own designs. On a much deeper level, Colind blamed himself, and his failure burned him to his core. Reymius, his old friend and Aaron’s grandfather, might have told him that Tarimus’s failings were his alone to bear, but Colind knew better. Perhaps in time he might see it differently, but he couldn’t allow himself that luxury now. He blamed himself, and he wanted to hunt Mactar down. That slippery fallen member of the Safanarion Order had lived too long already, and this world would bear the scars of his designs for many years to come. He could pretend to himself that he would pursue Mactar as some form of justice, but what he wanted was vengeance. He wanted it so badly that he found himself imagining trading his life for it with a perverted sense of glee. His oaths to the Safanarion Order and dead friends be damned. He wanted that man dead more than anything else.

“Colind,” Iranus said.

He looked up at the old Hythariam. The hall was empty now. Its occupants had long since left.

“Do you believe we can trust Sarah?” asked Iranus.

“I don’t really know her. Just what the others have told me. She wants to rescue Aaron, and those especially loyal to him want to help her. For the time being that should hold this alliance together.”

“What do you think she will do if the chamber is destroyed? We can’t expend time and resources to go after Aaron. I want to, and don't ever believe that I don't. I hate the thought of him stranded on Hytharia if he is still alive,” Iranus said.

This had been eating away at both of them since Aaron went through the portal and it closed. “For better or worse, Aaron is on his own and beyond our aid. I’ve said it before: He wouldn’t want us to focus on rescuing him with the threats aligned against us. He would want us to prepare. It is our charge to protect the people of Safanar. Aaron understood this. Especially toward the end, by Gavril’s account. To honor him, we shall continue preparing for war, and look for a way to possibly bring Aaron back from Hytharia.”

Iranus nodded, resigned to the fact that there were limits to what they could do. “There is another thing. I’ve heard whispers of it, since people have learned of Sarah’s recovery.”

“Quite the romantic story isn’t it,” Colind said with just a hint of bitterness to his voice.

“That’s not what I meant. Some are saying we should hold Sarah in our custody as leverage against the High King.”

“That would be supremely stupid of them.”

“I agree,” Iranus said. “But still I suspect this line of thinking will grow.”

Colind nodded, accepting the fact of it. “Well, we’ll need to teach them the error of this line of thinking. To hold Sarah prisoner as a means of bargaining with the High King would plant a divide among our own alliance in the Free Nations Army, as well as galvanize the High King’s army. We would go from a righteous cause of rebelling against a tyrannical nation to that of criminals taking hostages.”

“Let’s hope the others see it that way. I’ve asked Cyrus about her.”

“And what did my friend, the ruler of Rexel, have to say?”

“She is her father’s daughter in that she has a reputation for being cold and a bit ruthless at times,” Iranus said.

“Vaughn told me that they were initially quite suspicious of her when she first showed up on the Raven. But having learned a little bit about the girl, there are reasons why she would cultivate a reputation such as that. You of all people know what it takes to survive in a dangerous place.”

Iranus nodded, “Indeed I do, and speaking of such places, will you be going with them to Shandara?”

Colind’s first instinct was to say no. There were too many ghosts for him in Shandara. He had spent the better part of his imprisonment there, as a cursed shade sentenced to roam the realm of shadow, but now he was free.